Florida Tech has expanded its summer camps program this year, offering more than 35 week-long camps for high schoolers who want to train with college-coaches Billy Mims in basketball and Steve Englehart for football, take flight lessons, or do hands-on research in a wide range of academic subjects, including for the first time a STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Math – camp just for girls.
“We’re really proud of our programs and want Brevard County to know that we have these offerings. We have something for everybody,’’ said camp coordinator Erica Spencer.
There will be 2,500 to 3,000 campers at Florida Tech for the 2017 camps, some of which start May 30. Campers get to experience campus life first-hand with full-day participants grabbing meals at the Panther Dining Hall and overnight campers housed in dorms, Spencer said.
While sports camps have become more elaborate and advanced at FIT and other schools in recent years, Florida Tech has put equal emphasis on expanding its academic camp program.
“It’s been a goal at the university,” Spencer said. “Now, we’re about 50 percent academic and 50 percent sports.”
Why does Florida Tech hold so many camps? Pick a reason – student recruitment, community involvement, because it is a rewarding experience for students and teachers alike.
“It’s an opportunity to expose the students to a university environment that they may or may not have had before. Is there way to track whether they end up going to school here? I don’t think anybody has ever tracked that, but at least they will consider FIT.”
Florida Tech’s first-ever Girls in STEM camp is intended to “encourage and inspire the next generation of female professionals in science, technology, engineering and mathematics,” according to the camp website. It will give high school-age campers up-close and personal looks at research in the areas of marine and environmental sciences, electrical and computer engineering, and mechanical and aerospace engineering.
The girls will be introduced to “graph theory, statistics, data mining and mathematical modeling techniques and software, while also developing problem solving and analytical thinking skills. Lab experiments, field trips and social events are planned, as well.”
“We want to show the girls, not that this is easy, but that it is difficult and that’s what makes it interesting. There is no gender with success,’’ said Associate Professor of Mathematics Munevver Subaski, who is running the Girls in STEM camp.
Field trips she has planned include a visit to the Florida Tech Plasma Spray Lab and the high-tech engineering facility run by drag racing champion Elaine Larsen, who co-founded Larsen Motorsports and drives the 5,500-horse-power Florida Tech-branded jet dragster capable of achieving speeds of nearly 300 mph in a quarter-mile race.
FIT is also doing a similar STEM camp sponsored by General Electric for Stone Middle School eighth-graders June 26-30, Spencer said.
Rockwell Collins is offering STEM camp scholarships for Brevard County youth who want to immerse themselves in the study of science, engineering, math, computer programing or aviation studies on a first-come, first-served basis.
Helping campers, seventh grade and up, take to the skies is Nick Galli, student services manager for FIT Aviation Flight Camp, which runs several flight camps segmented by age, ability and ambition in the area of aerospace.
“It takes a lot of work but it’s also very it’s rewarding,” Galli said. “I especially like it when younger kids sign up with the instructors [to continue studying to get their pilot’s license after camp is over]. I give them a log book to get started. There are a lot of great kids whose parents are engineers and they are encouraged in this way. I don’t know if they could get this exposure in most other locations in the country.”
Also on the summer schedule are art camps at Foosaner Art Museum, located in the Eau Gallie Arts District; sports camps for boys and girls designed to teach basic to advanced swimming, tennis, baseball and other sports, and snorkeling camps for ages 6-13 that teach the fundamentals of snorkeling.
Florida Tech’s Evans Library is offering a camp called What We Know: Understanding Media and its Influence for middle school and high school students age 13-16, while the marine science department is offering an Aquaculture, Biology and Conservation camp.
“Most of them are just a week and that’s a good amount of time to get a taste of something new,” Spencer said.
Registration is now underway at http://camps.fit.edu.